Wisdom From Divorce: Respect Your Own Needs

Relationships work when partners respect each other’s needs but you can’t expect your partner to do that if you don’t make your needs a priority:

If I respect my own needs, then my partner, if he’s the right partner is going to respect them too. That’s been a big learning and it didn’t come naturally to me. ~ Anka

Anka and her husband were together for about ten years and split up when Anka was 28. With the help of her therapist, Anka realized that she was a nurturer, a care-taker and as such she’d put her own needs as secondary to others. She had a habit of picking men who she thought she could take care of – she was picking the wrong men. Changing that led Anka to an entirely different relationship, one that is mutually supportive.

How do you balance making your needs a priority and being a caretaker?